www.mindbodyservices.com

Menu

From our sister center: TriYoga Center of Central Pennsylvania

Question

I was wondering about breath during meditation. Do you use Natural breath? Complete breath? I find myself starting with Victory breath then easing into Natural breath. Thanks, Karen

Answer

The TriYoga® approach to meditation is to use the Concentration Kriya as a bridge into meditation. The Concentration Kriya practice (visualizing light rising up the spine on the inhale, with the mantra OM, and light cascading from crown on the exhale to AH) is a practice using complete or victory breath. After 5 or more rounds, the practice dissolves into natural breath meditation, unless one feels the need to stay with the practice due to sleepiness or activity in the mind that keeps the meditative state from appearing.

Traditional yoga follows an “8-limbed path”—also known as the “path of Ashtanga”—to a meaningful and purposeful life. Along this path, we learn to withdraw our senses inward and prepare for one-pointed concentration called “Dharana.” Sustaining such concentration leads to meditation and ultimate absorption or oneness, known as “Samadhi”.

Your natural instinct to begin with victory breath and let it dissolve into natural breath is 100% in keeping with the practices that we teach in TriYoga. You’re a natural!

From our sister center: the TriYoga Center of Central Pennsylvania

Jail Tales

(first posted 1/17/14)

From the time she began practicing seriously, TriYoga® student, teacher and supporter Evelyne Noel knew that she wanted to take yoga into jails, carving out a physical and mental space for lifestyle choices. Socially non-compliant behaviors were familiar territory—Noel had heard her father’s World War II stories about starting a center in France for delinquent youth. Even though he had vehemently tried to steer her away from the field as a youth, Noel made a career out of teaching socially maladjusted youth, spending 15 years with delinquent youth.

A few years ago she sought out the sheriff’s office in her county, seeking to teach in one of the detention facilities. Jumping administrative hoops, including those that would ensure her safety, she persevered, quitting all other yoga teaching in order to devote her time to meeting paperwork, photo, and clearance expectations. She found support with Offender Aid and Restoration (OAR), an organization devoted to connecting volunteers like herself with inmates aiming to use jail time constructively. After months of persistence, explanations and security clearances, Noel began teaching at a jail in late 2012. She taught two eight-week sessions, and recently returned to the jail for a third session.

From the start, teaching in jail challenged everything she had learned about teaching. Yoga props were not cleared for security reasons; only mats were allowed. In stark contrast to every other class she had ever taught, her classes were filled with background noise. Due to scheduling constraints, noise carried over from the rec areas. At times, deputies, needing to do their jobs, walked through the class. And inmates wanted to talk: about poses, aches and pains or about where to find yoga on the outside. “So we lost the meditation aspect, but gained community, which I thought was important,” she recalls.

What surprised Noel most of all was the women’s warm reception. “That just knocked me off my feet.” The students welcomed her, they smiled and worked hard. They thanked her for coming and asked if she’d come back. Attendance was sporadic, but that never bothered Noel. “It didn’t matter how many students I had,” she said, “It mattered that I had one, because I wanted to hold a yogic space in the jail, once a week.”

As a way to “wrap her brain around what she experienced,” Noel reflected on each class in a journal. Starting today she shares those reflections with the TriYoga community. Installment one of “Jail Tales” follows — check back to read more about her sometimes challenging, yet always uplifting, journey.

Jail Tale #1, 2012, very first class

(first posted 1/17/14)

Went well given that it’s jail!

Nine women showed up, some very, very rotund, some not very strong and three beautiful blond chicks who seemed fit.

One-third of the class got into the flow in the side of the room that was the darkest. The others seemed to have restless bodies and did not like to keep their eyes shut.

Super on top of it, the deputies were ready: mats in a corner, class list done, room reserved: spacious, connected by a partial glass wall to the central pod where the deputy sat. Deputy said she wanted me in that room so she could see me. Sure liked that idea, really comforting.

I sustained my own flow but not as deeply as usual: the floor was cold and three-fourths into the practice, the inmates in the central pod started cleaning up, piling up chairs etc. Just as we were moving physically out of Yoga Nidra, the deputy yelled in the loudspeaker “Class is over!”

I’ll have to close class a little earlier next week. So…I have new challenges to work with. I’m pleased.

I was startled by how tough these women are. I could FEEL it. They were very polite to me, worked hard, but they unveiled nothing of themselves and I could feel that they were sizing me up. I am going to go the gentle warrior route with them.

Freaked myself out after class though!

Got in the elevator to go down and leave but somehow the elevator started going up! The higher the floor, the tighter the security. I was wondering what I’d do if an inmate got on the elevator from “up there???” The elevator doors opened and in comes a deputy. Never been so glad in my life to see a uniform, I could have hugged the guy!

“Sir, how do I get outta here?” I asked. He looked at me and my great desperation and said “Little lady…” Then he pressed the right buttons and I was SAVED!

Jail Tale #2

(first posted 1/28/14)

The room with the cold floor was not available.

The deputy tried to put us in an unheated room and I stood TALL—gentle warrior!—and said NO.

We ended up on a noisy mezzanine with a warm floor.

First time EVER I’ve taught a yoga class yelling.

Forget Yoga Nidra, did not happen.

But I DON’T CARE.

Because

The women were glad to see me

Were not as guarded

Asked if they could bring other women

And what was my maximum

I felt that

I had a Mary Oliver BIG HEART

So I said

I could handle unlimited numbers

I KNOW it to be TRUE

Jail Tale #3

(first posted 2/18/14)

This yoga is the yoga of It All Depends on the Deputy.

No mezzanine this time as the new lady deputy said the mezzanine was too dangerous. Why, I asked? A fight, she says, a fight and you could get thrown over the railing. I look up at the blue metal railing, little metal see-through squares, and agree that indeed, I could get flipped over but I’d have to be the losing domino at the end of a very unfortunate sequence of events for that to happen. I do not believe that anyone would flip the yoga volunteer deliberately over, but then, I don’t quite grasp the risk factor.

So the deputy sends the women who are not taking the class back to their cells in order to free the central area for yoga. There is some deputy barking as the inmates don’t move fast enough, a threat of practicing transitions tomorrow. Inmates shuffle around, stack chairs, put games away, surely disappointed by my presence, which takes away one more slice of their little social time. I hug my mat, stand yogini tall and try to keep this bucket of activity at bay so that I can deliver a yoga class worth an inmate’s infinite time.

What was the game room becomes the yoga studio. Cell doors are shut, the deputy returns behind her station and practice begins with a return to the breath. Class unfolds with a door banging, deputy footsteps here and there as she makes her rounds and an inmate who has much trouble closing her eyes noticing a bug by my mat. The bug may have in mind the small coffee spill to my right.

“Crush that bug!” she finally orders.

I teach.

“Hey! Crush that bug.”

“I don’t crush bugs.”

I could make ten more statements about that, being yogini, that the bug’s done nothing to me, that she’s a sentient being, that the inmate should go within and close her eyes, that she could watch the bug impassively in an attempt to change her karma about bugs. But I hold my tongue.

“Hey the bug….”

“I don’t crush bugs.”

Her eyes lose all the quietude that practice might have yielded so far. She adds:

“Not even bedbugs?”

I lose some of my poise: “Maybe bedbugs, yes.”

At the end of class, K. comes over.

“Where can I do more of this, I’m getting out next week.”

“You’re getting out? That’s a good thing right?”

“Yes, I’m leaving jail. Where can I do this yoga thing?”

“I’ll get you the brochure of my yoga studio.”

Jail Tale #4

(first posted 2/24/14)

Today I come in under the smiling vigilance of a deputy who greets me with a “Here’s the Dancing Yoga class!” Gratitudes for his joking.

And today I hold inmate gazes more steadily as I walk into the ward. We find ourselves in the sequestration room. There’s a door, maybe a possibility for consistent silence and stillness.

May I shut the door?” I ask the deputy.

“I’d rather you keep it ajar.”

I like that he has my back. Ajar is a chair. Then, less ajar, with my shoe. During Yoga Nidra, I shut the door gently but feel a stir in the room. Remembering the inmates’ nervousness I announce that all is well, I have just shut the door. Consistent, quiet alertness seems to be every one’s way of life here, just manifests differently.

The room is small, not square and we are very crowded. We run out of mats and I lend mine. We run out of room and I give my spot away. So I teach crunched up here and there, between the door and three mats, right on the linoleum floor.

“Darlin’, can you move your mat a bit?” says I. to C.

“You address each other as Darlin’?” I ask, stunned.

“Yes,” and a smile.

“Well then, me too. You all are my darlins! My Yoga Darlins.”

Truth told, they are. All that woman has that is glamorous, these women have lost. Their grey-clad destitution has not yet been replaced by the clarity of sparsity.

My darlins.

Bed Bug Lady interrupts class again:

“I’m worried about HER.” And she points to one who looks paler than pale for lack of outdoorsiness.

I come over and inquire à la Theresa Shay.

“It’s that cheeseburger I just had before comin’. It’s here, I can feel it!” She points to her lower right ribcage.

“You ate a cheeseburger just before coming?”

“Yeah”

I can go to don’t eat before coming to class but she probably has no choice. I can go to watch what you eat but she probably has no choice. I have choices.

“Lie down right here on the mat, don’t go to sleep now, stay focused and imagine yourself doing the practice with us. You’ll do an energetic practice, it has many benefits.”
I don’t know how much of this she and they understand but I do know that the Darlins value the care and the sense of community.

The first yoga question pops up, a question about using the right breath. I say that as long as they are watching their breath, they are right.

That question becomes the discombobulation of class. They ask if I can bring yoga books in. They ask for homework. We chat a while, they tell me they seldom go outdoors, but that sunrays do wiggle themselves into their cells. Homework # 1, on the fly: find the sunray and sit in it, every day. Give it your face; it is the connection to the outside and to much more.

I tie the loose, but colorful threads that are left of class into a closing.

Jail Tale #5

(first posted 3/4/14)

“Nope, ain’t gonna take those shoes off.”

I contemplate the shoes: high top, hot pink, shining shoes. Bulky and not flexible.

I contemplate the possibility of a dead end I want to avoid.

“Okay, come in.” I surrender, but when she walks all over her mat with the shoes, I can’t take it.

“Darlin’, the shoes can’t be on the mat.”

“Okay.” She lumbers off the mat.

“I ain’t practicing anyway, just here to look.”

Dead-end ditto.

“Okay then, just sit on the mat and watch, join us when you want.”

She flops on the mat, shoes on the mat but not the soles.

Our gazes cross and she “Okay! Like this!” moves—butt on the mat, feet-in-shoes—off. I hadn’t thought of starting with a twist.

In the end she will stay and watch the session but I learn that shoes come off, period.
P-E-R-I-O-D.

Jail Tale #6

(first posted 3/12/14)

Those who wanted homework and books have not been coming but others who are not registered have been showing up.

We are consistent in inconsistencies: room changes, student population flux, deputy levels of tolerance and interruptions. In spite of this, patterns emerge. I know the length of pauses between locked doors, I know to meet inmate eyes and nod as I enter the ward. I know to give silence to the deputy as he shifts his thoughts to yoga. And I now know the presence of the one student who has come to all the classes. I know how she sits on the mat, how she works and how she pays attention.

Jail Tale #7

(first posted 3/21/14)

I come close to the inmate’s mat as she lays on her back, tense and jittery. She catches my eyes and whispers something.

I nod, called to move us into the next pose but then return to her, feeling that I missed something.

“What did you say before? I missed it.” I frown a bit as I come to the ground, bringing my face closer to hers.

“I said, you know about the pain, don’t you?” Her eyes are hopeful; she expects an understanding.

“The pain, you said?”

“Yes, the pain, you know about it, right?”

“I am not sure what pain…”

“Heroin withdrawal, you know about that pain. What can I do?”

I dwell deep into her small brown eyes and say, “You don’t have to move if the body hurts but breathe—breath will help.”

When I return the following week, this inmate had been moved to the drug unit.

What is Prana?

By Christine (Citrini) Ware, Ph.D., E-RYT

I was recently asked this question by a long-time student. Prana is defined in different ways: energy, life energy, breath. It can also be thought of as qi or chi (concepts from Traditional Chinese Medicine). In yoga philosophy, the two great aspects of existence are prana and cit (pronounced chit), energy and consciousness. Prana, as energy, exists everywhere and in everything. It is the energy of creation and the essence of matter and form in the universe. It flows through subtle energy channels called nadis. The breath is one of prana’s subtle material forms. The practices of yoga are designed to increase prana, by encouraging control of its flow and energy-enhancing (or “right”) actions. Prana Vidya is the knowledge of life energy; in other words, it is the knowledge and the application of this knowledge to control the flow of prana for greater health and awareness. Pranayama is defined as breathing practices that control and expand prana.

Prana needs to be experienced. It cannot be understood through explanation alone. This is the reason that yoga is an experiential practice in which self-experiment, self-inquiry, and self-realization are encouraged. The experience of energy, of breath flow, and of activity (prakrti) are ways to experience prana. We can experience prana and gain knowledge of it by tuning in to our experience of energy, breath, and activity, and more particularly, that which increases our energy, breath capacity and flow (svara), and ability to focus. The experience of prana can also be (and often is) quite subtle. For example, it may be possible to feel shifts in energy using hasta mudras (hand mudras) or subtle movements of the body in meditative states (prana kriyas). One may also be able to experience the subtle or energy body in relaxed and meditative states (as if experiencing an aura or energy field around one’s physical body). Kriyavati, the inspiration for the TriYoga Flows and Prana Vidya practices, is the manifestation of kundalini (universal life energy) via hatha yoga.

In class this week, I encouraged students to experiment with changing their breath pacing and the timing of their flows and movements, in order to experiment with and experience these shifts in prana. For example, it can be interesting to see how one’s focus, relaxation, breath, thoughts, and experience of energy change if one comes to Knees to Chest from Partial Recline (1) synchronizing breath and movements of legs and arms versus (2) when one breathes randomly and brings each arm and leg into the posture at a different time. The practices of TriYoga are designed to awaken, enhance, and control the flow of prana through encouraging positive lifestyle choices (including dietary choices), the TriYoga Flows, pranayama (breathing) practices, mudras, practices which focus the mind (pratyahara, the withdrawal of the senses; dharana, concentration; and dhyana, meditation), the experience of expanded consciousness (Samadhi), and selfless service (Karma Yoga). Prana is experienced more easily when the body is relaxed, the breath is rhythmical, and the mind is calm; this also expands prana.

The mind and breath are interdependent. Pranayama practices are one of the most powerful ways to control and calm the mind. Thus, yogic teachings maintain that pranayama is one of the greatest yogic disciplines because it brings the breath – and therefore the mind – under control. The more one can increase prana through the breath practices and calm and focus the mind, the more one can balance and increase the flow of life energy.

For more information, please study Kali Ray’s Prana Vidya manual (2008). For this article, with the correct Sanskrit transliteration markings, please download the PDF version from our website. http://www.mindbodyservices.com

Join in a quiet, centering practice on the first day of winter, celebrating the shortest day of the year and the transition that returns us to more light. The practice will promote and deepen the meditative atmosphere through the trinity of posture flow, rhythmic breathing, and meditation.

Celebrate the New Year ~ with TriYoga!

Wednesday, January 1, 2:30-5pm

with Christine (Citrinī) Ware

Come relax, rejuvenate, and celebrate the coming of the new year with a deep yoga practice! During this symbolic time of transformation and reflection on the past and future, mindfully begin the new year, commit to mind-body health, and connect with the Source.

TriYoga Anniversary Practice

Sunday, January 5, 2:30-5pm

with Christine (Citrinī) Ware

Celebrate TriYoga on the Anniversary of Kriyavati, the day when the Flows first moved through Kaliji. Through our practice, we will honor and celebrate the Flow.

Students of all levels are welcome.

For our planning, pre-registration is requested.

Each workshop: $30

$5 discount for advance registration (paid 1 week in advance)

~ STUDENT APPRECIATION ~

if you were a registered student or purchased 2+ Flexibility Passes during 2013, one of these workshops is on us

I have been thinking a good deal about obstacles, our relationship to obstacles, and the “removal of” obstacles lately. I’ve also been considering some recent personal experiences with obstacles and I’ve been frequently chanting the name of Ganapati (also known as Govinda or Ganesha). The Indian/Hindu representation of Ganapati is one of a strong and powerful elephant. This image is designed to remind us that we have the power within to remove all obstacles. (At a later time, I will write more about deities and the various Indian/Hindu representations of the Ultimate). As a psychologist, I frequently work with clients who feel stuck, impeded, and mired in hindrances, obstructions, and difficulties, sometimes for years. I believe it to be “magical thinking” and overly simplistic to think that one could chant to a deity that embodies and represents the removal of obstacles in order to remove all obstacles.

And yet…Kaliji has said numerous times that thoughts follow energy and energy follows thoughts, thereby encouraging us to be mindful of our thought content and the effects of thoughts. The field of interpersonal neurobiology also supports the idea that the brain is in constant evolution, even after our formative childhoods, as our neural pathways continuously respond to and rewire themselves based on our experiences, thoughts, and relationships. Yogic perspective and practice further suggest that if we calm the chatter and reduce clutter, Truth is revealed. It makes sense, therefore, that if we calm our physical-psycho-emotional-spiritual-emotional-energetic self and align it with positive intentions (as well as calming and positively influencing our environment over time) that hindrances and difficulties will lessen (and we will also better deal with those that arise). Here is a simple example: I take a roundtrip 10-minute drive on a regular basis. Recently, I have had several interesting experiences with traffic obstacles on this route. On more than one occasion, I have had a regular radio station playing in one direction of the drive only to find that I encountered every red light and several construction zones where I had to wait for the flaggers to change their “stop” sign to “slow.” In the other direction of the drive (not always the same direction or in the same order), I have had a CD playing with chants to Ganapati/Ganesha, only to find that I had green lights and flaggers indicating “slow” immediately, thus a smooth obstacle-free drive. Again, I believe it to be overly simplistic to think that if we simply have our radios set to “remove obstacles,” we will not encounter any. Yet sound and music can alter our moods and our thinking. It is not inconceivable that the sound vibrations and intentions with which we approach situations make a difference… It also seems that something is an obstacle partially based on how we see it. For example, certain “significant” difficulties that I have faced in the past (for example,depression, self-image problems, negative body image, worry about failure) were truly challenging and seemed insurmountable at times. They have, however, ended up being great teachers and have made me who I am today (as a person, a therapist, and a yoga teacher). I feel grateful to have faced and moved into and through such difficulties.

I also watch how others’ encounter obstacles. During yoga practice, students move to the “edge” of a posture or face negative self-evaluations as they arise. I attempt to support my fellow practitioners in observing these challenges as non-judgmentally as possible, inquiring into “bigger picture” concerns. Is this challenge in the thighs who you are? How far into the thigh stretch is helpful and when does it become hurtful? Is the negative judgment accurate? What is helpful in it and what is worth letting go? Who are you really? Recently I had the chance to observe another yoga teacher’s nervousness when she found that I would be her student, as well as a number of other teachers and advanced yogis. She acknowledged her nervousness, moved into it, and did not let it stop her. By the end of the class, she had released it and she and all of her students thoroughly benefited from the class, relaxing deeply and releasing into yoga (as profound, transcendent union). The experience was transformative. It was also a representation of the way in which obstacles are our teachers. We all continuously learn from ourselves, others, experiences. Gurus (teachers) are everywhere.

Some obstacles and challenges are quite temporary (i.e., traffic), some endure for a time (i.e., a job loss or financial difficulties), and some are much less changeable, perhaps even permanent. For example, our dear, departed TriYoga sister, Debbi Gardner, faced a major and eventually life-altering cancer diagnosis in the last few years. Even in the face of death, she transformed her own and our lives by demonstrating the ability to accept this final transition, prepare for it, and embody and express love. At her memorial, we were blessed by the gift of love as she had found amazing, beautiful, and deeply touching ways to express it from beyond the grave. Through her perspective and example, her “passing over” was no longer an obstacle or something to be feared, but another journey, a transition, a departing from this to the “other side.” (For more on Debbi’s transition, visit http://www.debsway.net). Since none of us live an obstacle-free life, it seems worth examining our relationship to challenges – large and small – including the final challenge of accepting our own mortality, acknowledging that the embodied life we lead is temporary.

“We are all one, no separation.”
– Debbi Gardner

Postscript:

I thought that I had completed this article last night, saving it for a final re-read this evening. But, of course, contemplation of obstacles has its hazards, particularly if we believe that thoughts follow energy and energy follows thoughts… Perhaps Krishna and Ganapati got together for a good laugh at me today; perhaps this was a cosmic test… Our child-caretaker, who is truly reliable, unexpectedly had a mandatory and important appointment that could not be rescheduled in New York City this morning. My husband, between night shifts and ill with a fever and chills for the last two days, could not be asked to take on the children. I scrambled to find an alternative arrangement for them and shifted my client schedule to make it work. As the day progressed, it became apparent that she would not make it home by midafternoon as I had hoped. In the last moments before yoga class, I thought to ask a regular Tuesday evening student, certified in TriYoga, to teach class for me (thank you, Marj!) so that I could return home and relieve the high school student who had already been caring for the children for 6 hours (thank goodness for his spring break!). As I prepared to leave the yoga studio, knowing my class was in good hands, a small pewter circle next to the figurine of a yogi on my office key chain fell to the ground. I had never paid much attention to this circle. It read “Balance.” I and the students still in the waiting room had a good laugh as I said that I had just lost my “Balance.” As I laughed my way out of the studio/office, I thought how comic it really was that, as I was writing about obstacles, I was encountering a number of them (albeit relatively innocuous ones, thankfully). I also thought to myself that I had handled the challenges of this day remarkably well (especially given how I might have reacted to them in the past): with relatively little stress, doing what needed to be done to manage the challenges as they arose.

Then… as if to truly tease and test me – to speak loudly from within “have you forgotten already?” – I took the children out for dinner. Our meal was going splendidly until, for no discernible reason, my littlest one started screaming. SCREAMING, inconsolable SCREAMING. Nothing I could think of to do would appease him – no soothing, no holding, no ignoring, nothing… (I always say that he must be teething when such incomprehensible crying arises). We finished eating as quickly as possible. Then the older one joined in the screaming and crying. We left the premises, my head hung low in embarrassment at the scene and noise that we were creating. In the car, it continued. SCREAMING. I tried to drive quickly, to get home. I tried music. I tried reaching back to pat them. Nothing, just SCREAMING. Then, not believing for a second that it would work or be any different than the other music I had on, I put on “Gam Gam Ganapataye Namaha.” And the screaming and crying ceased, almost immediately, and did not start up again. WOW! (Have you forgotten already? I guess sometimes we just need to be continuously reminded to truly learn and trust).

TriYoga Teacher Training (TYTT) is a valuable resource to have in our community. Whether one is inspired to follow the path of sharing and teaching TriYoga or just deepening ones own practice, attending a TYTT workshop is invaluable. Through teacher trainings, we gain subtle knowledge and are able to refine how we share this knowledge to be as clear and as concise as possible.

The TriYoga Center of Philadelphia, with senior teacher Christine (Citrini) Ware, was excited to host their monthly 4 hour workshop for TriYoga Basics interns looking to become certified in Basics. The workshop was also used by others as a way to deepen their practice. TriYoga Basics is the first level of TriYoga. In Basics, we learn the fundamentals of the flows including spinal waves, proper alignment, economy of motion (and words) as well as prop use. There are 5 Basics series, of which the interns explored speaking through Basics Water Series 2 Variation 2 and Fire Series 3 Variation 2. All the interns did an amazing job guiding the whole class through the sequences. Each intern is clearly committed to their process towards teaching and advancing their understanding of TriYoga. Here are some of the lovely highlights of Sunday’s workshop: